Welcome!

Pages

3 June 2011

Top 5 Creative Bookshelves I Envy

I’m a bibliophile...Sounds sinister but it’s really just geeky! A bibliophile is a book lover, usually someone who collects books. I have kept every single one of my university text books, if I read a book I love I will usually go out and purchase it (the latest addition is The Creative Process Illustrated and I love the smell of a new book.

When I visited the States last year I stayed next to the famed shopping heaven of Union Square in San Francisco. Instead of designer shoes and clothes, I returned with hand luggage filled with books! I refused to pack them into my check-in luggage for fear they’d be damaged – or worse – lost! I’m not a light packer and already had my fair share of hand luggage, so lugging the heavy collection of advertising books around the globe fell to my ever patient husband.

I guess the logical next step is my enthusiasm for book storage. This post is a collection of the most interesting bookshelves from around the world. My ultimate goal is a home with a full library room – complete with a ladder on wheels, an open fire, armchairs and a globe that hides a scotch bottle and crystal glasses... In the meantime I would settle for any of these amazing shelves though.

Following on from my earlier post on Bookseller’s Auckland Airport bookshelf I have compiled a list of 20 of my own personal favourite bookshelves from around. Even though these are a step away from my full-on library dream – there’s a lot to be envied in this list!

Number 1: Malagana – EquilibriumI first spied this bookshelf on Design Boom and was enchanted by this seemly impossible balancing act. The shelf employs cantilever physics and each box is balanced on just one single angled point. The angles remove the need for bookends and can hold up to 54 kgs (120 lbs).

Available from Malagana Design

Number 2: Bilbao Branch BookshelfI like the fact this shelf look like you may have picked it up off a forest floor and glued it to your wall! New York designer Sebastian Errazuriz calls this part of his “Death Series”. The designer states his work is designed to remind us of our own mortality, changing us to look at our own lives and question our routines. My point of view I see life in this piece – I can’t help but imagine this branch sprouting green buds in springtime.

Also by Sebastian E. – Metamorphosis (but I will have to keep envying this piece – price tag is a cool US$75,000!)

A more realistic option is this white branch shelf from Swiss Miss - I might even give this a go myself, will let you know what the result is!

Number 4: IKEA at Bondi Beach

Reading and sunbathing go hand and hand in summer – so when IKEA wanted to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of it’s popular Billy bookshelf it installed 30 Billy bookshelves on the beach in Bondi, Australia. Book and guerrilla marketing – what an awesome combo!

Number 5: Book Wall

This modular book structure repurposes used outdated and old books creating a wall with a special designed metal connector. An endless modular meta-grid applies its function to walls, room dividers or shelves. Literally a book shelf made of books – awesome!